GMS News 95 October 2016

Jim

Oct 05|14:16

Redberry

This drawing of the house formerly called Redberry, and now known as Champlain’s Well, with what is now Lamp Cottage next door, appeared in a book called England’s Outpost written in 1921 byArthur Granville Bradley.

it does look rather idealised to me.The photo below shows Lamp Cottage from the end . It does look much different from its appearance today.Old photographs give us a record of changes in the village through the years and I am always on the lookout for old pictures, both photos and drawings.

In 1953 the thatch on Redberry was replaced with tiles and the jettied front was filled in so that it lost the traditional Kentish farmhouse look, and could quite easily been built as a pastiche dwelling in the twentieth century. It was renamed Champlain’s Well as some obscure reference to Champlain, a Frenchman who explored Canada in the 17th century. The photo below shows Champlain's well as it is now.

October Meeting

Here is a further reminder that On October 20th Mike Burrows will give a talk on “Smuggling in Kent and Sussex” in the Village Hall at the usual time of 7. 30.

This print is of a band of smugglers in Dymchurch.

There are stories from Great Mongeham which are linked to smuggling—perhaps something for a future Notes.